on purpose

1. accidentally on purpose . Seemingly accidentally but actually deliberately, as in She stepped on his foot accidentally on purpose . This generally jocular phrase was first recorded in 1862.

2. Deliberately, intentionally, as in He left the photo out of the story on purpose . Shakespeare's use of this idiom was among the earliest; it appears in The Comedy of Errors (4:3): “On purpose shut the doors against his way.”

Example Sentences

If one tried to do the thing all at once it would look too on-purpose.

From Project Gutenberg

The frontier between France and Spain is a great wide river-on purpose to give us another bridge.

From Project Gutenberg

We bucked into the fortunes of war; it's a sort of accident, a sort of on-purpose accident, all the way through.

From Project Gutenberg